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Facebook and Myspace App Platforms: A Brief Update

With the 2-year anniversary of Facebook's platform a few weeks away, I've put together an overview o the current state of Facebook and Myspace apps. At a time when iTunes attracts most of the media coverage, the Facebook & Myspace (particularly Facebook) platforms are quietly producing apps and developers with impressive usage numbers.

Facebook App Platform - Total
Active Usage There is an upward trend in the Number of Active Users. 662M Total Number of Active Users: All Facebook Apps Source: O’Reilly Research

Facebook App Platform - Active
Usage Per App As the number of available apps has increased, the number of active users per app has decreased. Facebook: Active Users Per App [ (Total Users of All Apps) / (# of Apps ) ] ~ 10.1K ~ 7.4K Source: O’Reilly Research

Facebook App Platform - Active
Usage Per Member As the number of (active) members increased from 86M (in Aug-08) to 200M (past week), app usage per member decreased. However, usage per member has remained stable since the start of 2009. Facebook: Usage Per Member [ (Total Users of All Apps) / (Total Members) ] ~ 4.4 ~ 3.4 ~ 3.1 Source: O’Reilly Research

Myspace App Platform - Total
Installs There is an upward trend in Number of Users. ~ 182M Total Installs: All Myspace Apps Source: O’Reilly Research

Myspace App Platform - Installs
Per App The upward trend in Number of Users Per app, is less impressive. Myspace: Installs Per App [ (Total Installs of All Apps) / (# of Apps ) ] ~ 33.3K Source: O’Reilly Research

Outline  Comparing three app
platforms - # of “Active” Apps: Facebook, Myspace, iTunes  Distribution of users and apps - Percentage of apps with at least 100K users  Major App Categories  Revenue and the Top App Suppliers - Revenue: Some recent estimates - How apps generate revenue - Top Suppliers: Overall and in the Games category

Unique Apps - Apps that
Appear Each Week Number of Unique Apps Each Week First 19 Weeks of 2009 iTunes is adding applications Platform Launch Dates at a much faster rate Facebook: May-07 Myspace : Feb-08 iTunes : Jul-08 Source: O’Reilly Research (through 5/10/2009) [Normalized to a starting value of 100 on 1/4/2009]

Unique Apps - Comparing “Size”
of Platforms  In comparing the size of the different platforms, we tried to exclude inactive applications.  Unfortunately, the three platforms expose different metrics.  After examining data for all the platforms, we settled on the sets of apps described in the next slide.

Revenue from Facebook & Myspace
Apps  Game Apps - In-game points system that can be used to purchase virtual goods that enhance users “powers” - Virtual Goods are important enough that Facebook & Myspace are considering introducing virtual currencies - Points system becomes a major source of revenue: Points can be bought  All Apps - Top Facebook Apps sell ads to other Facebook apps - Offer-based ads: coupons, contests, surveys, software downloads - Game apps can be popular for a few months: placing ads on other top apps allow developers to attract new users

Top 25 Facebook Developers -
ALL Apps THIS WEEK Active Users in Millions Total (All Apps) Per App (5/10/2009) Source: 4 of the Top 10 were O’Reilly Research Game Developers, including 3 of the Top 5

Top 25 Facebook Developers -
ALL Apps 12 Weeks Ago Active Users in Millions (2/15/2009) Total (All Apps) Per App Source: O’Reilly Research 4 of the Top 10 were Game Developers, including 2 of the Top 5

Top 25 Facebook Developers -
Games THIS WEEK 12 WEEKS AGO Source: O’Reilly Research (5/10/2009) (2/15/2009) Active Users in Millions Active Users in Millions Total (All Game Apps) Per Game App Total (All Game Apps) Per Game App

Top 25 Myspace Developers -
All Apps THIS WEEK 12 WEEKS AGO Installs in Millions Installs in Millions (5/3/2009) (2/8/2009) Total (All Apps) Per App Total (All Apps) Per App Source: O’Reilly Research Zynga and Flixster are also top app sellers on Facebook